In a piece from Ryan Voght at Slate, Voght argues that the recent recreation in full detail of the original Mario Brothers game should be taken down immediately despite the fact that it is wildly popular and the fact that it has been 28 years since the game was first created. I know those two fact have no legal validity in an argument on copyright but in the real world of entertainment business they are everything as HBO might tell you with its show Game of Thrones being the most pirated show in television history. I completely disagree with Voght from both a business perspective and philsophical perspective – everything we see points to allowing your copyrighted material to be used freely (especially after 28 damn years) – it not only allows material to be used in creative new ways but as we have seen time and time again it benefits the original creator. On this Friday of Open Access Week let’s hope that the cease and desist letters cease and desist for at least one brief moment.

Actor, Kevin Spacey, recently gave a speech in Edinburgh, U.K. that television executives needed to hear 5 years ago about giving customers what they want and stop standing in the way of technological innovation. While Spacey is not discussing copyright, the issue of copyright as being outmoded and not keeping up with the times is the same as these executives not keeping up with change. Although with copyright we have a twist – a doctrine that was designed to promote innovation has been stifled and choked with technology in the form of DRM – so we actually have a regression. I would like to see more impassioned pleas such as the one given by Spacey for copyright reform. View the video here via Gawker and The Telegraph.

Everyone loves giant robots, at least from what we can tell from the recent success of the movie Pacific Rim at theatres. Some special effects guys got in on the giant robot bandwagon at Comic Con and describe how they used open source software, borrowed and improved on the ideas of others and employed 3D printing technology to boot – all things we love here at the Roundup. Visit the link via our friends at Copyfight.

The Technology Liberation Front brings you a podcast from Sheriwn Siy discussing digital copyright as well as the DMCA, online streaming, piracy, cell phone unlocking, fair use recognition, digital ownership, and what we’ve learned about copyright policy from the SOPA debate.